Lehigh Valley college students gear up for alternative spring breaks

Moravian College senior Andrew Benson had a few choices for spring break this year.

Among the options, he could have visited family in Tannersville, worked his part-time job or stayed in his college dorm.

The choice was obvious, he said. Benson and others from Moravian College's campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity will be building walls, laying plywood and working on the roof of a Lakeland, Fla., house next week.

"Over the past few years, my eyes have been opened to a sheer need of assistance in housing," he said. "I am very excited to know that I can volunteer and help those in poor situations while still enjoying my spring break."

Moravian College and Penn State Lehigh Valley students are gearing up to study and volunteer for alternative spring break trips. Students from both schools were expected to depart today and will return March 9.

Moravian students, faculty and alumni will head to spots like Florida, Arizona and South Carolina nationally for volunteer work, said Michael Wilson, director of public relations and marketing at the school. Some students will go to the Caribbean to assist impoverished families living in Jamaica. Others will head to the Grand Canyon to pick up litter and work in a greenhouse, he said.

Allison Goodin, assistant director of university relations at Penn State Lehigh Valley, said students will head to Italy, Mexico and West Virginia this year.

Students from the campus's Community Heroes club will spend their week in rural West Virginia painting, installing new floors and doing exterior maintenance to homes that were damaged by Superstorm Sandy, she said.

Other students are traveling to Rome and Mexico for course-embedded short-term study abroad experiences, she said.

Students in Rome will document their experiences using video technology. They studied memoirs and films shot in Rome and use them to model their own visual memoir of the city, Goodin said.

Those in Mexico will meet with University of Guanajuato students to learn about the ecology and agriculture of Guanajuato by visiting agave fields and touring a Green Giant vegetable processing plant, she said.

This isn't Benson's first time helping others during his week off.

Last year, Benson traveled to Pickens, S.C., with the Habitat for Humanity chapter. He went to Sumter, S.C., the year before that.

"I think this should be a typical spring break for everyone," he said.

Moravian junior Jenn Leedom went camping with friends for spring break her freshman year, but since then, she's found other ways to keep busy.

She also went to South Carolina last year, and that trip inspired her to continue serving others on spring break. This year, she's going to Sumter to do framing and roofing on houses for two families.

"I chose to volunteer over my spring break because ... I think that it is so much more worthwhile to spend my time helping others, especially when I get to travel to a new location and meet new people as well," she said.